A small band of survivors huddles in an old Italian villa, unwilling to go home at the end of World War II

Summary

Four damaged lives converge in a bomb-riddled Italian villa in the last days of the war. A grieving nurse, a maimed thief, an emotionally detached Indian sapper are each haunted in a different ways by the riddle of the man they know only as the English patient. A nameless burn victim who lies swathed in bandages in an upstairs room shares his memories of the bleak North African desert, explorers' caves and Bedouin tribesmen, forbidden love, and of annihilating anger. The consequences of the mysteries they reveal leave all the characters forever changed.